When I was about eight or nine years old, I saw an animated music video for an instrumental piece of music I absolutely loved. As well as the music being haunting, beautiful and captivating, the video was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen, with dystopian sci-fi vibes that blew my childish mind. It made a really strong impression on me.

Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea what the piece was called, or who it was by, so when it popped into my mind recently, I was very sad that I couldn’t search for it. I really wanted to see and hear it again.

Amazingly, today, despite me not having made any effort to find it there, the Instagram algorithm fed me a post featuring part of the video, and I recognised it immediately! Behold, here it is in its full glory – La Serenissima by Rondò Veneziano.

I’m almost certain it’s been over forty years since I last saw it, and I doubt I saw it more than once or twice, but both the music and the video were very accurately etched into my memory, and seeing it again has been such a treat. What an amazing aesthetic – I really clearly remembered the robot musicians, and all the sci-fi stuff in it is so cool. It won’t surprise you to hear that this was massively influential on Daft Punk’s vibe and look. Apparently this video was used as filler on ITV when there were gaps in the schedule, and I’m absolutely certain that’s where I must have seen it.

I’ve watched it loads of times today, I’m so pleased to have found it again. It was one of those things I was increasingly convinced was a figment of my imagination, or something I’d completely misremembered, but no. My little brain knew a good thing when it saw it, and my considerably older brain is very happy to finally have found it.

No need to thank me for introducing this thing of wonder and beauty to you. Enjoy.